Nathan Hillman
VIOLA - VIOLIN
Nathan Hillman, violist, violinist, composer, arranger, and educator has always been passionate about music, and is especially interested in studying chamber music not often performed. It was Janet Ciano, his first teacher that drew him to the viola, and ultimately into the rich world of chamber music, attending Kneisel Hall and Next Generation chamber music camps ...→ READ MORE
Viola - Violin
Nathan Hillman, violist, violinist, composer, arranger, and educator has always been passionate about music, and is especially interested in studying chamber music not often performed. It was Janet Ciano, his first teacher that drew him to the viola, and ultimately into the rich world of chamber music, attending Kneisel Hall and Next Generation chamber music camps in Maine for many years. After years of playing chamber music as a violist, Nathan, along with conductor Deirdre McClure, co-founded a chamber music program at Bay Chamber Music School (Maine), coaching ensembles open to both youth and adult students. In an effort to give students a broad spectrum of music, he chose lesser-known composers for many ensembles, resulting in vibrant recital programs.
Nathan sat as principal violist for the Peabody Symphony Orchestra from 2021-22, as well as the Union College Orchestra (Schenectady, NY), the Odeon Chamber Orchestra (Rockport, ME), and has played with various other orchestras including the Colby Symphony Orchestra. In 2023 he was part of an orchestral recording project at Peabody Conservatory featuring music by Pulitzer prize-winning composer and professor Du Yun in her Mythology Series.
He has volunteered as a violist and arranger for the Peabody String Sinfonia since 2021, which aims to develop a kinship between Peabody and the Baltimore community by sharing beautiful music. He served as co-director for the ensemble during the 2022-23 season, performing for OrchKids, Enoch Pratt Libraries, and Marian House, among others. Nathan worked for two years as assistant to the Director of Chamber Music at Peabody, Michael Kannen. He is a former member of other ensembles, including a West African drumming group led by Jordan Bennisan, Union College’s Taiko ensemble Zakuro Daiko, and Penobscot Bay Ringers, a handbell choir based in Mid-coast Maine.
Nathan won the Bagaduce Composer Competition in Blue Hill, Maine for three years, and has premiered a number of original chamber and solo works, most notably in 2012, where he presented a concert debuting eight compositions, ranging from one to nine musicians. Despite currently focusing on viola, Nathan maintains a strong interest in composition and arranging, especially chamber music. He has extensive experience arranging music, often featuring viola, both in solo and chamber music contexts, and not limited to the classical genre. His experience as a composer has been instrumental to freelancing work, which often requires special music arrangements.
Since before his inception as an educator with Bay Chamber Music School, Nathan has always believed that musicians should feel inspired by the music they are playing, and that playing an instrument should be based on love for the instrument. Learning an instrument involves not only technique, but also music theory, music history, arts, body awareness, and self-confidence, so he works to incorporate all of these elements into his lessons.
Nathan studied at Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, where he earned a B.M. in Viola Performance under Choong-Jin Chang, principle violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Nathan currently teaches violin and viola around the Baltimore- DC area, both private lessons and chamber groups, maintaining a strong network for performing opportunities as well. In addition to music, Nathan enjoys time spent outdoors, hiking, snowshoeing, or camping. He enjoys taking trips along back roads, experiencing the local culture, music, and landscape. Growing up on a farm in rural Maine, it was not uncommon to see young Nathan playing violin for a flock of chickens.
LISTENING TO:
Zoltan Kodaly - Duo for Violin and Cello
Johannes Brahms - Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano
Ysaye - Sonata No. 4 for Solo Violin
Rush - The Spirit of Radio
Heart - Barracuda
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - Autumn in New York
Chet Baker - It’s Always You
Rosetta Isnardi (VIRTUAL ONLY)
PIANO - VIOLIN - VOICE - MUSIC THEORY
Rosetta Isnardi is a lifelong musician, who believes wholly in the power of musical curiosity and expression. She began her musical career by slapping at the piano’s keys cantankerously as a baby, and started lessons as a kindergartener in an effort to play more sonorously. Eventually she decided to devote her life to music, so she got a BS in Keyboard Performance...→ READ MORE
PIANO - VIOLIN - VOICE - THEORY
Rosetta Isnardi is a lifelong musician, who believes wholly in the power of musical curiosity and expression. She began her musical career by slapping at the piano’s keys cantankerously as a baby, and started lessons as a kindergartener in an effort to play more sonorously. Eventually she decided to devote her life to music, so she got a BS in Keyboard Performance (piano and harpsichord) from Adelphi University in Garden City, NY, and an MM in Piano Pedagogy and Performance from Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ. Her penchant for playing the piano has landed her on concert hall stages, ballet studios, recording studios, and in bars and rock stages (as a keyboardist with the band Survival Society..
Her incredibly supportive family endured years of squeaking as 4th grade Rosetta began her studies of the violin, and watched the growth of a young musician with an unquenchable thirst for classical music. In fact, in one of her happiest childhood memories, Rosetta recalls laying sprawled on the carpet, blasting Tchaikovsky 6 on the boombox in her bedroom, and playing Zelda games on her muted Game Boy Color. She wishes to bring that kind of joy to everyone.
Rosetta has taught in a variety of settings, and has decided the private studio is where her passion and talents lie. She lets her students’ tastes and curiosity determine exactly the ways she will teach them. She brings diversity to The Music Space with teaching piano, violin, voice, and music theory.
LISTENING TO:
Arvo Part - Fratres
Dimmu Borgir - Progenies of the Great Apocalypse
Led Zeppelin - Since I’ve Been Loving You
Leo Delibes - Coppelia
Derek Wiegmann
DOUBLE BASS - ELECTRIC BASS
Derek Wiegmann is an in demand bassist and teacher who lives in Baltimore, MD. He began playing the electric bass at the age of twelve. He was introduced to the double bass at the age of 17 and fell in love with the instrument. During his freelance career, Derek has performed a wide variety of genres including classical, jazz, rock, blues, R&B, Motown, bluegrass, country, and pop...→ READ MORE
DOUBLE BASS - ELECTRIC BASS
Derek Wiegmann is an in demand bassist and teacher who lives in Baltimore, MD. He began playing the electric bass at the age of twelve. He was introduced to the double bass at the age of 17 and fell in love with the instrument. During his freelance career, Derek has performed a wide variety of genres including classical, jazz, rock, blues, R&B, Motown, bluegrass, country, and pop. Derek has been teaching privately since 2012.
In 2012, Derek entered the Jazz/Commercial Music program at Towson University where he studied with Jeff Reed. While at Towson, he also studied improvisation with the renowned trumpeter Dave Ballou and played in the big band directed by Jim McFalls. Through the jazz residency program, he studied and performed with artists such as Drew Gress, Ralph Alessi, Ellery Eskelin, Tony Malaby, and Mary Halvorson. He played in master classes held by David Liebman, Donny McCaslin, Mark Dresser, and Jeff Lederer. During his junior year, he was selected to perform with the Mid Atlantic Collegiate Jazz Orchestra under the direction of trumpeter Sean Jones at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. He has always been interested in versatility and exploring different styles. During his senior year, he studied South Indian Karnatic music with Jon Seligman and performed in the Latin ensemble. He has performed Balkan music with Orchestra Prezavica in Baltimore and D.C. and Persian classical music with Nader Najd’s orchestra in Alexandria, VA.
While at Towson University, Derek was also an active performer and student in the classical department. He studied classical bass with Victor Dvoskin. In his fourth semester, he began attending Cecylia Barczyk’s cello studio’s weekly master classes. He continued to attend and participate in her weekly master classes until graduation. While at Towson, he played in chamber ensembles coached by Mrs. Barczyk and played principal bass in Towson’s orchestra his junior year. Also during his junior year, he performed alongside Towson faculty and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra members in the pit orchestra for Randall Thompson’s Solomon and Balkis as part of the American Opera Symposium hosted at Towson that year. He also in played in and observed master classes in the violin studio. Cecylia Barczyk became an important mentor to him. He assisted Professor Barczyk in writing her instructional method, “Teaching the Double Bass in the Classroom.” Together they filmed a series of videos to compliment the text. The materials are used in the lower strings method class for music education students at the university.
As a teacher, Derek uses student-centered teaching strategies as a means to actively engage the student in his or her learning process. The role of the teacher should be to help a student learn how to teach him or herself. He firmly believes that students should understand the “why” and not just the “how” and “what.” Inspired by his exposure to the Alexander Technique, Derek teaches technique based on natural body movements and the release of excess tension. When teaching technique, he does not just teach what it should look like, but how it should feel. He has explored a variety of different playing postures with the double bass (sitting, standing with straight and angled endpins) and electric bass (various ways of sitting and standing) in order to help students of all body-types and sizes find a way of playing that is comfortable for them. Regarding lesson structure, he does not believe in a “one-size-fits-all” mentality and caters lessons to the goals of the individual. He firmly believes that talent is not an innate ability that one is born with; it is a skill that is trained and developed.
In addition to teaching at the Music Space, Derek has been an adjunct professor at Howard Community College since Spring 2017, and has taught lower strings as part of the after school music program at the Park School of Baltimore since 2016. Derek has coached double bass sectionals at the Baltimore County Summer Music Camp (2016) and the Howard County’s Elementary School Honors Orchestra (2018). He was an All State Orchestra string judge for cello in 2016.
LISTENING TO:
Edgar Meyer - Uncommon Ritual
Bill Evans Trio - My Foolish Heart
Dexter Gordon - Soul Sister
Rev. James Moore ft. MS Mass Chori - Interiors
Eivind Opsuik - Twelve Days
Stephen Filer
CELLO - VIOLIN - VIOLA - PIANO
Stephen Filer is a proficient string player who has excelled performing in classical, rock, and folk settings. A Cellist since age 11, Stephen spent his childhood steeped in the music of Bach and his baroque contemporaries. It wasn’t long before he formed his own classical trio whereby he played weddings, brunches, and banquet halls throughout his high school...→ READ MORE
Cello - Violin - Viola - Piano
Stephen Filer is a proficient string player who has excelled performing in classical, rock, and folk settings. A Cellist since age 11, Stephen spent his childhood steeped in the music of Bach and his baroque contemporaries. It wasn’t long before he formed his own classical trio whereby he played weddings, brunches, and banquet halls throughout his high school career. He went on to study Cello at Anne Arundel Community College and performed in the school’s symphony orchestra under the direction of Anna Binneweg. He is currently a Music Minor at UMBC, where he performs with several chamber ensembles and continues to polish his skills under the close instruction of his mentor Gita Ladd.
In addition to his classical experience, Stephen has earned acclaim playing in various bands in the Baltimore area. He co-founded the folk rock group Big Hoax, in which he pioneered playing standing, strap-up, electric cello, while simultaneously singing harmony vocals and kicking a bass drum. Stephen has helped Big Hoax record two albums and play festivals from as far south as Nashville to as far north as Ottawa. In addition, the band have been interviewed by WRNR Annapolis and WRUR Rochester, and they earned an honorable mention in NPR’s 2015 Tiny Desk Concert Contest.
Stephen contributes his vast and diverse experience to The Music Space by helping aspiring string players learn creative and technical skills on Cello, Violin, and Viola.
Listening To
Eugene Cicero - Erbarme Dich, Mein Gott
Jethro Tull - Bourée
Franz Liszt - Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen
YoyoMa, Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer - Fugue No. 18 in E Minor, BWV 548
Kurtag - Gottes Zeit Ist Die Allerbeste